Chelsea Grocery Store Serves Biting Commentary on Van Halen

Assorted Cheese Contains Elements of 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love'

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.24.08 @ 11:57 AM

Photo: Lisa Fain

We've covered rock-branded eats before, but this one may be the tastiest ... critical commentary?

Recently, our editor's assistant Matt Kinsey purchased a container of assorted cheese cubes at the Westside Market in Chelsea, but he was a little worried about the ingredients, which included:

I've been to the edge
And then I stood and looked down
You know I lost a lot of friends there, baby
I've got no time to mess around

Somehow, Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" slipped into this batch, and a dutiful employee entered the lyrics into the label in order to let everyone know. Our assistant managing editor and certified foodie Lisa Fain returned and discovered that this was unfortunately the only type of rock n' roll cheese sold there, and she also managed to get thrown out in the process! Word to the wise: be prepared to leave if you're snapping photos with a big honking SLR in a grocery store.

Jason Harper: King of Big Mac Chants

Fourth-Place Finisher Bain Served 12 Years for Knocking Off a McD's

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.22.08 @ 05:31 PM

After a frenzied period of voting -- according to McD's, only 12,280 participated -- the winner of the McDonald's Big Mac Chant is finally here. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jason Harper and your new Big Mac Chant:


As previously announced, this new stomp-along classic will be incorporated into a 30-second spot that will air on MTV the week of July 28. According to the Palm Beach Post, Harper's track will simply replace the professionally created version currently running.

Reebok Helps the NFL Get Down With Its Surreal-Pastoral-Folk Side

New Pre-Season Spot Features 1966 Vashti Bunyan Track

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.22.08 @ 11:15 AM

Yesterday couldn't have been slower if it was rolled in molasses and dipped in breadcrumbs. Or so we thought ... until this little dollop of joy dropped into our mailbox: Reebok, through its agency mcgarrybowen, licensed a Vashti Bunyan song for an NFL TV commercial.

The concept is pretty simple: Gridiron dudes, savoring the off-season on the beach or catching fish or whatever they do (making pre-season commercials?), are drawn back into the NFL's tractor beam as Bunyan's bewitching 1966 single "Train Song" plays in the background. Many of you will probably recognize players like Eli Manning, Peyton Manning and about 18 others trudging through deserts and abandoning half-mowed lawns to arrive at a stadium in a migratory V formation for the fall season. Naturally, we were initially drawn to the recently rejuvenated folk hero who sings about glowworms.

Last.fm Lets Marketers Target Jean-Short-Wearing Eagles Fans

New Ad Tool Provides Access to Fans' Musical Tastes for More Interactivity

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.18.08 @ 01:44 PM

Welcome to the new last.fm. Looks much like the old last.fm ... but there's a creamy treat on the inside!

In a lot of music-branding campaigns, diversity of tastes is key to getting the most banging beats for your buck. Look at the recent Converse "One Song" campaign: There's Pharrell hitting up the hip-hop fans, Julian Casablancas pulling in indie rock and even mainstream rock fans, and then there's Santogold bringing in ... (we're scared to say R&B fans, and it's really not appropriate anyway) lots of other adventurous listeners who frankly cross all of these boundaries.

Smaller brands can often afford to align themselves with a particular artist or genre, but larger brands tend to (smartly) tick off as many boxes as they can without ticking off any of their consumers. For them and many others, last.fm is rolling out new ad software that allows advertisers to target users based on their musical tastes. According to the UK Times Online, the CBS-owned site's redesign this week was geared in part toward delivering better-targeted interactive experiences like this.

Hayden Panettiere's Spot for Candie's Provokes Blogger Identity Crisis

'Wake Up Call' Is the Guiltiest of Pleasures

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.16.08 @ 11:23 AM

SFS is feeling a little conflicted this morning. We were given this clip of Hayden Panettiere singing her first single for a Candie's-via-Kohl's spot, and we were, in all honesty, expecting to groan and close when we saw it. Turns out, we ... well, kinda like it. And that makes us feel weird.

We know what you're thinking, but give the 30-second spot with "Wake Up Call" a listen. It's not a bad song. It certainly beats out anything Ashlee Simpson has perpetrated in past years, and we can even handle the little bit of tuneless spoken rapping bits. It's sort of a bubblegum-dancehall ballad, and it has one of those unfurling velvety choruses that will -- for better or worse -- become lodged in your brain. We're most definitely not the target audience and this is the guiltiest of pleasures, but, among the tween set, this song may kill.

They Should Have Called It Crocodile Rocky Road

Ben and Jerry's Finally Gets Around to Immortalizing Elton John in Crystallized Dairy

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.15.08 @ 11:14 PM

About damn time. And all he had to do was play Vermont? Holy granola, Elton John is finally getting his own ice cream flavor.

"It's hard to cram 50 years of musical history that Elton John brings to the table in one pint," said Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc.

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Our Q Answered: TAG Records Reveals First Artist

Brooklyn Beatmaker Appears in Artful Print, TV Campaign Beginning Tonight

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.15.08 @ 11:28 AM

The gods at P&G were obviously listening last week when I asked who TAG Records had signed as its first artist. It's Q, a nigh unGoogleable rapper from Brooklyn whose mother probably still refers to him as Kareem Savage. Anyone who's heard of him is probably familiar with his former group Da Franchise or saw "Drumline," where he worked with Jermaine Dupri on the song "Been Away."

Q is getting the red-carpet treatment for his signing to TAG Records: a national TV spot that gives a sampling of his lyrical skills and announces the nascent label to the masses. If you couldn't tell from the making-of clip we posted last week, it's full of epic bombast and allusions to art history. Some may bristle at the metaphorical image of label head Dupri crossing the Delaware -- the Brooklyn Bridge, in this case -- in search of new talent, but we're guessing that the rest of the homages included here will go over most people's (read: our) heads.

The Battle of the Band Brews

SFS Pits Dave Mustaine Against Billy Bob Thornton and Styx

Posted by Lisa Fain on 07.09.08 @ 01:02 PM

You'd think that Songs for Soap headquarters would be a must-stop on any band's media tour, but we have never been visited by any musicians. (Unbelievable, I know!) Craving more attention from the musical community, imagine our joy when we recently received coffee from three of our favorite bands -- Megadeth, Styx and Billy Bob Thornton's Boxmasters. OK, so it's not quite the same but we'll take whatever crumbs (or coffee grounds) given to us.

Now before you question the relationship between rock music and coffee, remember that Starbucks is/was a record label, not to mention they're closing 600 stores. Obviously, there's both a demand and a void -- we're just thrilled that these rock stars are here to fill it.

Jermaine Dupri Takes Us Into the TAG Records Bunker

But Who's the First Signee?

Posted by Charlie Moran on 07.09.08 @ 11:37 AM

As part of the TAG Records arrangement we wrote about a few months back, Jermaine Dupri has been working on a full-scale media roll-out to announce the venture to the world at large -- you know, the almost immeasurably small crumb of America's population that doesn't read this blog. Believe it or not, they're out there living among us.

Will Live Nation Get a Nickelback From Their New Signee?

Concert Promoter Adds Another Big Act to Its 360 Roster

Posted by Mike Tunnicliffe on 07.08.08 @ 05:06 PM

The Live Nation 360 train continues full-steam ahead with the tour promotion company now finalizing a major deal with Canadian rockers Nickelback. This latest move, which comes less than a week after the company announced a 360 deal with Latin superstar Shakira, is, according to various media reports, a three-album, three-tour deal encompassing multiple revenue streams, including merchandising, live, album, endorsement, secondary ticketing and DVD sales. It's said to be worth between $50 and $70 million.